Pentair EC-342001 - SuperFlo VS Variable Speed Pool Pump, 1.5 HP - Limited Warranty

Nice unit; fairly quiet. Easy to program for various speeds over various time periods. Easy to get started manually if needed. A lot more powerful than the pump I replaced while consuming noticeably less energy than the old one.

I've had this in use now for almost 6 months. My father was an electrician, and later an Electrical Engineer, so I grew up learning quite a bit about electricity and electronics. I've installed several pool pumps in my life (I live in Florida and have had 4 pools in over 30 years). This was by far the easiest pump installation of them all; the pump determines all aspects of polarity, voltage and frequency. Just be sure to ground/bond the system. I use a salt generator to chlorinate the pool. The previous installation used a master timer to control and power both the salt generator and the pump simultaneously. As this system comes with an integral timer, I left the salt generator on the master timer and used the factory default programming on the pump. All I can say is "WOW". Most of the time you can't tell if this is running because it's so quiet, and it functions flawlessly. The single draw back to this purchase is that the manufacturer does not honor the warranty if you install the pump yourself. As a result, I purchased the warranty marketed by Amazon thru Asurion. I seldom buy additional warranties, but my previous pump didn't last more than about 3 years and I'd paid more for it than this. Further, I'd never been able to get it to prime at low speeds and trying to figure out a work around when it started after a power failure proved too difficult so I never ran it at low speed (that pump was a two speed pump, both speeds pre-set by the manufacturer, Eco Pump). This pump with it's manufacturers default programming always starts at high speed for 5 minutes to insure it primes. The pump will eventually pay for itself with the money saved by running a such low speed for most of the day.

I was hesitant about getting a VS pump but felt it should be considered. After over 6 hours of research and puring over power usage data, performance and various manufacturers I dedided on the Pentair 342001. The only issue I found with Pentair was the professional installation requirement for the full warranty, but did not want to pay the inflated price of $300.00 +. I have been a DIY guy my whole life and a good background with pools and electrical so I figured to give it a go. Decided to do my own install and purchase the Amazon extended warranty to cover what would be the "normal" Pentair warranty. The install was very easy. Had to replumb some PVC pipe using the best heavy duty glue available at HD. The power was connections were SUPER EASY. The Pentair system recognizes your avaialbe power and adjusts itself accordingly. I used adjustable appliance feet to make leveling easier and also to help with vibration of which there is very little anyways with this motor. Performance: Wow what a difference!! This motor is so quite it's hard to know that it is running. My pool filteration system was down for over a week while I gathered data and waited for the unit to arrive so you could see the water was struggling even though I added chlorine to keep it from going swampy on me. Ran the pump for 24 hours at 3000 rpm to while I balanced the chemicals. You could see the difference in in just 12 hours and by 24 hours the water was crystal clear. Changed the DE in the filter and ran it for another 24 hours just to make sure. The volume of water filtered through the system and the exit waterflow back into the pool is amazing. Should have done this a long time ago. No more loud noise and hopefully no more huge electric bills. Put the energy rating at 4 stars becasue I have not been able to gather enough data to see the savings at this point. Will really be able to know by this summer and will update the review.

First attempt at purchasing and installing this pump was a bust. I had bought it from Walmart and got it all hooked only to find the computer was dead, screen was blank. I returned to Walmart and bought on Amazon. Hooked it up last night and worked perfectly! Very easy to program. The noise level at full 3450 rpm is different in natural from my old 2hp single speed Pentair Whisperflo but about the same level. However when you lower the speed to 1800rpm or less the noise level is almost negligible. Very quite. I have a salt generator as well and I lowered the speed to around 800 rpm before it tripped the flow sensor in the salt cell. Therefore I set the long run time on the VS to 1100 rpm. At that rpm it was showing 90watts of power consumptions! About like a light bulb! For reference when running full 3450 rpm it was reading 1500watts!! There will be huge savings on electric bill with this amount of reduction in wattage. Very pleased so far. Let's see it the pump stands the test of time.

Update - May 2, 2018: After a couple of days the noise from the pump has increased significantly. I don't believe its a failed bearing; sounds more like the impeller striking the housing. I'm absolutely positive there is nothing caught in the pump as my pump strainer basket is almost pristine. I always use a skimmer sock.. This is the same sound it made out of the box, its just much more pronounced now. The sound is present throughout the full range of RPMs, just a lower pitch and less volume at slower RPMs, as you would expect. Still evident all the way down to 750 RPMs. So.... looks like I will be on the phone with Pentair tomorrow. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I just finished the install of my new Pentair Variable Speed pump. Installed it myself, but bought an additional 4 year warranty to supplement the Pentair 90-day warranty for homeowner installed pumps. BE SURE TO CHECK IF YOUR POWER COMPANY OFFERS A REBATE. My rebate was $400. Not bad for a $650 pump and 10 minutes of online work. Installation was a breeze, though I had to do some minor re-plumbing since the inflow and outflow ports were not identical to my last Pentair pump. Electrical connections were easy, with simple access to the pump power terminals (240V and # 12 stranded wire from my pool-side breaker) . Read the directions several times to fully understand how the pump cycles through the 4 Speeds (1, 2, 3, & Quick Clean). Its got a built in timer so if you have been using the traditional mechanical timer you will need to bypass or disable (by simply removing the on & off pins). The term "Speeds" here is a bit of a misnomer, since for each "Speed" you can set the start time, duration, and RPM. So when reading the manual, think of the three "Speeds" (1, 2, 3) as three available intervals or periods available to program in a 24 hour day that can be programmed the way you want. When first starting up, the pump goes into Primer mode for 5 minutes at 3400 RPM. Its pretty loud during this time. You can either wait for the five minutes, or hit the "1" button as soon as the pump is primed (about 10 seconds on my system). After 5 minutes of priming at 3450 RPM, it will automatically drop into into Speed 1, which is factory set to 3000 RPM. I suspect for most pools. 3000 RPM is the setting that will be used for the bulk of daily filtering. My Pentair FNS48 runs is at 12 PSI with the pump running at 3000 RPM after a backwash and new DE added. The re-programming of all speeds is very very easy. I do have to say, that at 3000 RPM this new Pentair VF pump is louder or more noticeable than my old single speed Whisper Flow. Also, the sound on the new pump is a higher pitched mechanical whine, making it more noticeable (IMHO) than the lower pitched "hummmmmm" on my old pump. Its not terrible, but if sitting around or using the pool I will definitely turn it off, if its in a 3000 RPM cycle mode. Slower RPMs result in less noise. I'll probably program mine to run at 3000 RPM, twice a day, for 3 hours each cycle (8 am and 8 pm). I've had good results with that schedule over the years. Haven't yet decided if I'll have it run at a lower RPM (~1200) during other periods just to keep circulation moving. I've been a pool owner for 14 years and have only used Pentair pumps, so can't compare this to other brands. My last Pentair pump gave-up-the-ghost after 10 years, operating at about 6 hours per day in season. I never brought it inside during off seasons and it finally rusted out around the motor capacitor. All in all, I'm pleased with the pump... and would buy the same model again (even without a rebate).

This pump is the best pump you can buy. The solid feel and quality of this Pentair is immediately noticeable. Bought this variable speed pump in tandem with a Hayward cartridge filter and our pool water has never been better. Sparkling and pristine, all 35,000 gallons of it! The new variable speed pump replaced a constant speed Pentair that was bulletproof for almost 10 years. This Pentair variable speed worked flawlessly this past season. The programming is simple and you can set the run time and speed for however many hours you want. I ran it for 2 hours at 6am at 3200rpms (it goes up to 3500rpm) and then stepped down to 1800rpms for 18 hours and finished up the last 3 hours at 2000rpms. 23 of 24 hours this baby ran with no energy spike on our electric bills !!! Think about it, circulating and filtering your pool water almost continuously, with no additional electric costs. Wow!! Can’t go wrong with this Pentair!

My trusty single speed 1.5hp Pentair SuperFlo pump started leaking, so I tried the route of replacing the seals. Unfortunately, the last bolt to remove the motor and get access to the mechanical seal that was leaking had the head snap off (it had corroded/seized). Unfortunately, there's just no way to drill out that bolt, so there was no way to disassemble the pump. Much to my surprise when I started shopping for a new pump, I discovered that Pentair has all but discontinued all their single speed pumps (except for a few smaller 1 HP models) and now only offers the much more expensive variable speed pumps. Since I didn't want to have to replumb, I decided to go with this Pentair SuperFlo VS, only to find out that it's not very compatible with my existing Pentair EasyTouch control panel. I was finally able to figure out a way to get the SuperFlo VS working with the EasyTouch, but it pretty much required re-wiring the EasyTouch, which was kind of a pain. It's bad enough that Pentair got rid of all their single speed pumps, but then to put out replacement pumps that aren't really compatible with their most popular control panel is pretty much an over-the-top crappy way to treat your existing customers. For it to work with the EasyTouch control panel, you'll need to get a (surprise...not) discontinued digital data cable to connect it. Don't be surprised when they send you a substitute model of cable that is completely different color coding so you're going to have to figure out how to wire all four speed settings yourself. All's well that ends well -- I have a working pump again, and I really do like this pump. It's much quieter than the previous SuperFlo single speed pump (even at equivalent speeds), and the lower speeds are literally silent. I was also able to reconfigure my Pentair ScreenLogic system as well, so now I can remotely control the speeds as well schedule them in the ScreenLogic system. I really wish the $20 seal kit would've corrected the problem rather than the $1400 new pump, but oh well. Also, the first pump arrived with significant shipping damage. Thankfully, I was able to get a replacement the next day, but unfortunately the second one was $60 more expensive

I had an older pump that was making a lot of noise. I attempted to buy a new motor, but apparently they are now illegal and you have to buy these alleged efficient water pumps. INSTRUCTIONS The instructions are acceptable, but not clear enough as far as the wiring. So I had to spend a lot of time researching to make sure I got it right. DESIGN What I discovered that is new is that the design is almost fool proof. Apparently the wiring does not matter, there is not hot and neutral. As long as you get your ground wire right the other two don't matter. Secondly you don't have to worry about voltage either, it automatically knows what voltage to use. I don't k now how this was accomplished, but it is a beautiful design. I was very impressed with these features. VARIABLE SPEEDS At first I thought it came with three preset speeds, but it does not. It has an enormous number of possibilities, which was very nice. You can select how long to run it at three different speeds. It will run at high speed when priming, then you select how long to run it for three different intervals. I don't recall how I set it up, but you can choose whatever RPM you want on 3 different intervals. I run it for about 2 hours at about 3000 RPM, then 6 hours at 20000 RPM, and then 2 hours at 3000 RPM. I was very happy with the flexibility. EFFICIENCY For the pump to work efficiently you have to have very tight seals. If there is small leak it will not RUN well., you will see it immediately. It is all very tight fitting compared to the older pump I had, also from the same maker. In terms of the actual electric bill, there is no meaningful difference between this year and last year for the same month it is about $4 lower. I intend to make some adjustments and see how it goes, but I am not convinced it is all that more efficient. NOISE LEVEL This pump is extremely quiet, I was so happy. My old pump had worned out bearings and you could hear the noise from the front of the street. This one I can only hear it if I am six feet away and it sounds more bubbling water than a motor. On the lower setting I can not hear it from inside the house, even with the windows open. I am very sensitive to noise, so in that regard this water pump kept me from going insane.. EASE OF INSTALLATION It is not as easy to install as I thought it would. The instructions have many requirements, and even though there is no warranty, I followed them to the letter, except I have not built a roof for it as of now. It does require you keep a certain distance from the heater, the run of pipe has to be a minimum from the inlet and outlet. Read the instructions carefully it does have a lot of requirements. I have a tight space so it was a challenge to get it all done, but it was more of an issue with the pipes than the water pump. It became apparently that the original installer purposely did a crappy job, so you could not re-use existing piping or the port so it added about $100 in costs. PROBLEMS AND WARRANTY The pump stopped working after a few seconds and I was very angry, because I thought that maybe they were unloading the junk on unsuspecting consumers, because t here is warranty. There was just an error code and it would not start. Fortunately someone was kind enough to address that very problem on youtube and it was a 15 second fix. Apparently something got stock inside the pump and all I did was turn an allen wrench through the back of to loosen whatever it was and it started working again. SAVINGS Based on the quotes I got to have a so called pro install a new pump, I saved around $1,200. This is where the savings comes from, not the alleged efficiency. I compared my two months electric bills to last year and my bill was $7 cheaper the first month, but actually went up $50 on the second month. But installing it myself was totally worth it, $1,200 is essentially get free operation for 2 years. I would buy again, do it all over again.